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Whatever happened to KSUN Bisbee?

U

Ultimajock

...in the '30s and '40s, KSUN was one of three CBS affiliates in Arizona that linked with each other to create a regional network of sorts, not unlike the Don Lee-Mutual chain over in California. The other two stations were Burridge Butler's KOY Phoenix and KTUC Tucson. Now, with no AMs at all licensed to Bisbee, I'm curious, did KSUN simply evaporate and the license get turned back to the Federal Communications Corruption ;D or did the station and COL move to an adjacent community?...
 
The call letters, KSUN, have now been assumed by the Phoenix 1400 AM station.

I had to go to the way-back machine, AKA Vane Jones' North American Radio-TV Station Guide. The 1974 Edition lists KSUN 1230 AM and KSUN FM at 92.1 MHz with 1,950 watts ERP. Both of those were Bisbee, AZ listings... You are correct; I can recall seeing the Bisbee KSUN advertised in print, as a youngster.

Maybe a southern Arizona resident would have some additional business information?
 
I'm intrigued by the KSUN-FM/92.1 listing, so I looked at David Gleason's 1970's archive editions of Broadcasting Yearbook, a wonderful resource, BTW. The Yearbook is typically a very accurate source. While 92.1 MHz. was indeed on the FCC's Table of Allotments for Bisbee, no FM CP appears to have been owned by KSUN anytime during the decade.

KBAZ, operating with a giant 50W. (2199' HAAT class A) from Mule Mountain was licensed to the Wryes, an elderly couple, in 1979. They ran it for a short time before selling to the operators of the original KZMK.

I bought the old KBAZ equipment from KZMK, parts of which were used for my Flagstaff KDKB translator on 92.1 for a number of years starting in 1981.

KSUN/1230 was still listed in the Yearbook (as KBZB, with a CP for a new transmitter site) as late as 1990, the last year I checked. Barry Mishkind was listed as the engineer, so he probably knows what became of them.
 
During the mid-1950s, while stationed at Ft Huachuca, I worked weekends at KSUN, at the time AM only and a Mutual affiliate. The family that owned it was very enterprising and must have had one of the earliest CATV systems in the country. No one in Bisbee could receive a TV signal (all from Tucson) because the town is nestled in canyons making TV reception well-nigh impossible. KSUN mounted TV antennas on top of one of the highest nearby peaks, then amplified and sent the signal to local subscribers. KSUN likely made more money from this than from revenue at the station. When I left in 1956, the station was going strong and had begun to experiment with originating a signal on its cable system. How far that went, I don't know. But again, likely one of the earliest known attempts at cable-originated programming. I lost track of KSUN as an on-air entity in Bisbee, but believe it was still active there well into, if not beyond, the 1960s.
 
Yes, you are correct, Ironbear... David Gleason has a great site, full of tons of radio facts and trivia. I've used it also, in the past. 8)

To follow KSUN's trail some more, the 1979 Vane Jones listed it as AM 1230 still in Bisbee. The FM listing in '79 shows the 92.1 FM as KBAZ with
ERP 50 watts and the HAAT of 2199 feet.
My personal cryptic notes in the book showed the "cosmic" KZMK on 92.1 FM. IIRC we made a visit in Bisbee about 1981. I really liked KZMK at that time;
that truly sounded like the old KCAC / early KDKB with their eclectic mix of album rock. That was a sweet stay in Southern AZ.

The call letters KZMK today are in Sierra Vista, AZ at 100.9 FM playing Hot AC.
While the 92.1 became 92.3 FM KWCD Country with the above power and height.
There is no AM 1230 in Bisbee. In fact, no Ancient Modulation stations call Bisbee home, today.
 
fusejockey said:
To follow KSUN's trail some more, the 1979 Vane Jones listed it as AM 1230 still in Bisbee. The FM listing in '79 shows the 92.1 FM as KBAZ with
ERP 50 watts and the HAAT of 2199 feet.
My personal cryptic notes in the book showed the "cosmic" KZMK on 92.1 FM. IIRC we made a visit in Bisbee about 1981. I really liked KZMK at that time;
that truly sounded like the old KCAC / early KDKB with their eclectic mix of album rock. That was a sweet stay in Southern AZ.
Click to expand...

I had a very fun visit to KZMK and Bisbee to recover the Wrye's old Phelps-Dodge antenna (what else, it's Bisbee!), CCA transmitter, and processing. The KZMK people had a Schafer 903 running Concept Productions' voicetracked rock format with personalities like the late Stephen Ponek, and it sounded great. Concept was first to perfect a simple and reliable form of voicetracking for syndication, using tone bursts on the talk and music tapes to lock out unsynchronized VT's, which could be embarrassing. That station was a monster for only 50W.
 
I'm sorry I don't check this board more often, I've loved reading some of the history of KZMK, the first station I ever was ever an "intern" for at the ripe old age of 10. My memories of KZMK are from the early 90's when they were based in Sierra Vista (in a studio above Kings Court Racquet Club). When I started hanging out there AM 1470 (at the time KSVA, now KNXN) had just been sold off and the owner(s?) were preparing to move from 92.1 to 92.3 (I always assumed to get out of the way of then KEKO/Now KFMA in Tucson). Just like with the KUPD building in Guadalupe though, the old KSVA call letters remained on the sign out front! Shortly thereafter (sometime in '92 I think) the owners sold-out to whoever owned KTAN and K101(which had the calls KFFN at the time if I remember correctly?) Our little unique rock format, live 24/7 went the way of the dodo replaced by Jones Satellite country and the call letters KWCD, while the KZMK calls moved over to 100.9 where they still are to this day. I think I still have "The Cars Greatest Hits" and a Pink Floyd CD from the KZMK library.

I'm curious if anyone remembers who owned KZMK at the time? And to bring it back to the original topic, how did KZMK end up splitting up from KSUN and becoming co-owned with 1470 KSVA in Sierra Vista? Lastly when did KZMK move the studio from Bisbee to Sierra Vista? I still remember we had a Sierra Vista request line as well as a Bisbee line ringing in to that glorious second floor studio above a tennis court overlooking the parking lot and a wash.
 
Beau Duran said:
I'm curious if anyone remembers who owned KZMK at the time? And to bring it back to the original topic, how did KZMK end up splitting up from KSUN and becoming co-owned with 1470 KSVA in Sierra Vista? Lastly when did KZMK move the studio from Bisbee to Sierra Vista? I still remember we had a Sierra Vista request line as well as a Bisbee line ringing in to that glorious second floor studio above a tennis court overlooking the parking lot and a wash.
Click to expand...

In the early '80s, KZMK 92.1 was owned by Copper Valley Broadcasters. There was no common ownership with KSUN. The 50 watt blowtorch operated out of a small modular building (aka 'mobile home') down on the valley floor, just off of Highway 92 and Naco Highway.
 
What is Ted doing with those stations in SV? I know someone interested in buying stations in that part of the state and would be great to pick those up.
 
This thread brought back some memories. I remember at a young age (7) visiting KBAZ right around 1979 and if memory serves correctly I saw my Aunt Margie Wrye on the air. This was my very first introduction into radio as a child and I was so fascinated by the fact she could talk into the microphone and we could hear it driving around that I got hooked on Radio and played Deejay for many years with my records. I can remember living in Scottsdale over by Los Arcos Mall in the 80's with an ourdoor FM antenna pointed towards Tucson listening to Aunt Margie on 96 Rock.. She worked at KUPD for a while in the late 80's with Dave Pratt and I got some free KISS tickets :) So KBAZ and the Wryes got me loving Radio to this day.. Anyhow this thread brought back some good memories, and I could not recall the Bisbee station that got me hooked. KBAZ.. Now I know :) Gotta check this thread more often LOL... Thank you for the history lesson!!
 
Wow..amazing what you'll find on the internet ;) My nephew Shon alerted me to this thread...Since I'm one of the "Wrye"s that originally owned KBAZ/KZMK, it was fun see some people around that remember the old days. I'm not going to correct all of the mistakes to the time line for the stations above, but if anyone would like chat more about it I can be reached at [email protected]...I'm going to double check with a friend, but I'm pretty sure the old KSUN frequency is still dark and collecting dust on a FCC shelf...
 
SqueakyWheel said:
Wow..amazing what you'll find on the internet ;) My nephew Shon alerted me to this thread...Since I'm one of the "Wrye"s that originally owned KBAZ/KZMK, it was fun see some people around that remember the old days. I'm not going to correct all of the mistakes to the time line for the stations above, but if anyone would like chat more about it I can be reached at [email protected]...I'm going to double check with a friend, but I'm pretty sure the old KSUN frequency is still dark and collecting dust on a FCC shelf...
Click to expand...

KBAZ was a great example of a true 'mom and pop', family operated station, and I always felt a nice connection in re-purposing the original equipment (except for the CCA, which I donated to a NCE-FM in Michigan.) The old ECFM-2 antenna was particularly effective for us in Flagstaff, with regular KDKB translator listeners in Holbrook, some 90 miles away, and Jerome. (It helps to have an awesome transmitter site, too.) Those were the days!

It's great to cross paths, all these years later.
 
Hey, ironbear..if you'd be willing to connect, I'd love to chat...it's hard to put into words what that time of my life was like, and it's very, very cool to hear about stuff that I grew up with in my basement being used for other great broadcast purposes...this was intended to be edited, but the webmaster posted the whole thing...brief synopsis of the 70's time line of KBAZ/KZMK. As I remember it, KSUN's owner did have the original c.p. for 92.1...but let it lapse, and that's when my dad came in. http://las-solanas.com/kwfm/personnel_mrye.php
I still have all of the FCC files and records...


So...you bought the equipment from Casto, the GM, or the engineer??? Yup, my dad picked out the xmtr site, one of the highest points (highest?) in Cochise County...50 watts did a lot of damage at that altitude :) Future owners sold/traded the 92.1 to 92.3 to make a buck..ironically to/with the same Tucson group I'd end up spending most of my career with...maybe my dad would have done the same thing.

Not sure if you can see this, but here's a link to the newspaper article when we (Copper Valley) were first up and running: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1149629274295.23601.1634511481&l=c823062910&type=1
 
SqueakyWheel said:
Hey, ironbear..if you'd be willing to connect, I'd love to chat...it's hard to put into words what that time of my life was like, and it's very, very cool to hear about stuff that I grew up with in my basement being used for other great broadcast purposes...this was intended to be edited, but the webmaster posted the whole thing...brief synopsis of the 70's time line of KBAZ/KZMK. As I remember it, KSUN's owner did have the original c.p. for 92.1...but let it lapse, and that's when my dad came in. http://las-solanas.com/kwfm/personnel_mrye.php
I still have all of the FCC files and records...

So...you bought the equipment from Casto, the GM, or the engineer??? Yup, my dad picked out the xmtr site, one of the highest points (highest?) in Cochise County...50 watts did a lot of damage at that altitude :) Future owners sold/traded the 92.1 to 92.3 to make a buck..ironically to/with the same Tucson group I'd end up spending most of my career with...maybe my dad would have done the same thing.

Not sure if you can see this, but here's a link to the newspaper article when we (Copper Valley) were first up and running: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1149629274295.23601.1634511481&l=c823062910&type=1
Click to expand...
Thanks for a great post and for all the background on KBAZ, and when I said 50 Watts can sound like a blowtorch, I wasn't kidding. I appreciate the heritage of that equipment even more now, and you now know that the good Karma came with us to Flagstaff. I was dealing with Dave Casto the GM, who later ended up in Cottonwood at KSMK, and Palmer Stewart, the OM. It seems possible that our paths crossed while I was at the station.

I've always related to your dad's path to ownership, which is much less possible anymore. With all the changes and consolidation that's happened, remembering the spirit of the real entrepreneurs who made it happen seems important.
 
I need to check the AZ section more often not just the Tucson section. My history with Bisbe radio includes when I first moved to Tucson working for Dennis Behan's KCEE, my freind Eric Schecter was doing part time engineering for KZMK I helped him a few times in that trailer with the automation sytem and on the mountain. Later, After the station had been sold eventually to the Sierra Vista combination That Behan owned, I became the Sierra Vista Engineer for the three and was heavily involved in that little 50 watt power house on the Mule mountain site. Always liked going up there. We had the Mandatory city of License studio in a closet in the back of a dance studio in old Bisbee that actually could have been put on the air (though I doubt it ever was!). Still stay in contact with Squeaky and a few others fromthe Sierra Vista days, even after moving to Las Vegas 13 Years ago.
 
You won't see me bump old threads often, but I was doing a bit of cursory research and found the answer.

On July 22, 1982, KSUN was rechristened KBZB, and in 1988 it was sold to the Rex Company, owned by two brothers with the last name King. The Bisbee Radio Project site indicates that the station closed at the end of 1982 as it lost listeners and ad dollars. The valuable callsign, which had been in use since 1933, was not out of use very long. On July 26, it was picked up by KXIV in Phoenix, which of course is today's KSUN — having taken on the calls just four days after they were given up in Bisbee.
 
Raymie said:
You won't see me bump old threads often, but I was doing a bit of cursory research and found the answer.

On July 22, 1982, KSUN was rechristened KBZB, and in 1988 it was sold to the Rex Company, owned by two brothers with the last name King. The Bisbee Radio Project site indicates that the station closed at the end of 1982.

I'm sure everyone appreciates your update, particularly at this late date but there appears to be a typo somewhere. What year did you mean to say the station closed?
Click to expand...
 
semoochie said:
I'm sure everyone appreciates your update, particularly at this late date but there appears to be a typo somewhere. What year did you mean to say the station closed?
Click to expand...

The station shut down in 1982 but the license stayed on the books for quite some time.
 
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